


A Link to the Past

by atamascolily



Category: The Adventures of Sinbad (TV)
Genre: Bryn's outfit, Gen, that chest of clothes Maeve gets in season One
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2019-01-01 02:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12146580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atamascolily/pseuds/atamascolily
Summary: Or, why Bryn wears the same outfit all the time.





	A Link to the Past

The dress is not the most attractive shade of yellow, but Bryn still can’t bring herself to stop wearing it. It may not be the most beautiful outfit in the world, but it’s her only link to her past, the only clue to her life Before. She clings to it like a talisman, as if constant physical contact with it will bring back her lost memories.

Who was she? What was she? What happened? Why?

It’s comfortable. It’s practical. It suits her well enough. It’s clear she was never the type to go veiled, as she sees many women do in the port cities they visit, but she knows whatever she was, she wasn’t like most women. She knows how to use a sword, kick a man in the face, and kill him just by looking at him with magic. She can talk to spirits (and occasionally be possessed by one) and sense danger from a distance. It makes sense that she never dressed like those women, either.

Eventually, after a few adventures with Sinbad, she realizes that she dresses like a magic-user. They wear what they please and they don’t let petty constraints like money or fashion or tradition bother them. Part of the reason they dress so flamboyantly, she realizes, is a sign of their independence; part of it is the same reason a wasp is brightly colored - as a warning. It’s a visual memorandum: Do not mess with me, I am powerful enough not to bother with your rules.

She doesn’t think she was evil Before. Certainly, she doesn’t dress like it - the yellow might be conspicuous, but it’s not nearly gaudy enough compared to what their opponents wear. She wasn’t evil, because she doesn’t feel evil, and people keep making cryptic comments about she’s not evil, but then are surprised that she ISN’T evil, and she doesn’t know what to make of it all. It’s so confusing.

The other reason she wears it is because it laces up the back and it is damn difficult to remove. What was I, sworn to chastity? Bryn wonders one evening, trying to unlace the tunic in the dark. Or did I have servants to do it for me? She grits her teeth and does it herself, because no way in hell can she ask anybody on the crew to do it for her. 

Surprisingly, there are other women's clothes aboard ship. She finds a whole chest of them tucked away in the cabin that was once Maeve’s - rich fabric, long, floor-length gowns, clothing that seems totally incongruous from the no-nonsense woman she imagines from Doubar and Firouz’s stories about her. Maeve never wore those clothes, they tell her, in whispered asides when Sinbad isn’t around; they were a gift to her via Sinbad from a queen they rescued from spending all eternity as a marble statue. But she never got rid of them, either.

Bryn knows even before she uncovers the story that she can never wear those gowns, though. She can see why Maeve never did - those dresses are meant for court life, long walks along the castle battlements, not trimming riggings at sea, or dodging arrows from mounted warriors while crawling through the underbrush - two things she’s had to do in the last week alone. But even for a festival on shore leave, or a private meal with the captain (not that he had ever offered or she had ever asked), she knew she couldn’t wear them because they were Maeve’s, not hers, and therefore off-limits. She had Maeve’s gauntlet and Maeve’s hawk, but they had been given to her; the dresses had not been. She could not bear the look on Sinbad’s face on those rare and fleeting occasions when he spoke of Maeve. There are no circumstances she can think of where wearing Maeve’s dresses would be a good idea. Especially not in front of Sinbad.

Still, there’s no reason she can’t buy something from a merchant while they are in port, and indeed Sinbad even gives her some money to do so if she likes early on. But it’s hard to find anything she likes, anything else that would fit the rough and tumble life she has as a crew member on the Nomad, and they never seem to stay in town long enough for her to commission something. So she wears the same yellow dress, day in and day out, and washes it carefully when she can, wearing male dress she purchased during a layover in Basra. She’s always uncomfortable and edgy until the dress is dry and back on her body, until she’s herself again. She may not know exactly who she was, but the dress is a part of her now. She’s given up so much already - she doesn’t even know what exactly she’s given up, either - she will not give this up, too. Not if she can help it.

Also, it’s not like the rest of the crew ever changes their clothing, either.

**Author's Note:**

> Written after watching Season Two of the show and thinking about clothes. I realized after I wrote this that most characters in the pre-industrial era only HAD one or two pairs of clothes - in which case always wearing the same outfit would be less noteworthy then than it is now. Still, I think this piece still stands.


End file.
